9-year-old Ryan Kaji becomes 2020's highest-paid YouTuber

A nine-year-old YouTuber has made nearly $30m this year from “unboxing” and reviewing toys and games, earning him the title of the highest-paid YouTuber for the third year running.

Ryan Kaji, from Texas, made $29.5m (£22m) from his YouTube channel Ryan’s World, as well as a further estimated $200m from Ryan’s World branded toys and clothing, including Marks & Spencer pyjamas. He has also signed an undisclosed, but allegedly multimillion dollar deal for his own TV series on Nickelodeon, reported the Guardian.

The 'child influencer' started off by making YouTube videos in March 2015 after watching other toy review channels and asking his mother, “How come I’m not on YouTube when all the other kids are?”

His family – who changed their real surname, Guan, to his on-screen surname, Kaji – now run nine YouTube channels. Ryan’s World is the most popular with 41.7m subscribers and 12.2bn views. And Kaji’s video, 'Huge Eggs Surprise Toys Challenge,' has more than 2bn views, making it one of the 60 most-viewed videos ever on the video streaming platform.

However, the young boy and his family are now facing a threat of a US Federal Trade Commission investigation over allegations that his videos’ sponsors are not disclosed properly. “Nearly 9% of the Ryan ToysReview videos have included at least one paid product recommendation aimed at preschoolers, a group too young to distinguish between a commercial and a review,” a complaint from the consumer watchdog, Truth In Advertising, said.

“These advertisements often depict unhealthy foods," it added.

Benjamin Burroughs, an assistant professor of journalism and media studies at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, warned that there was a danger that other children were “being targeted by child influencers in ways that parents may not be cognisant or aware of.”

“As a child influencer, [Ryan] is being courted by companies to play with the latest toy so that other children can see it. But now, the child influencer himself has become a brand that is then being put into Walmart, and Target, and Amazon as its own force and influence,” Burroughs said. “It’s pretty shocking.”

Burroughs revealed that he became interested in the child influencer phenomenon after his own kids asked him to do the things that Ryan’s family was doing.

“I thought, ‘Oh, there’s something going on here if my kids are expecting our family to look like Ryan’s family.’ In Ryan’s family, they’re able to constantly consume content and products. They’re opening up a new toy every day, and subsequently playing with that new toy every day, so there’s this constant consumerism that’s being embedded within these messages for children.”

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